Accessibility is all about checklists, HTML and assistive technologies. Its only impact on User Experience is to stop designers from being creative. Sometimes, you'd be forgiven for thinking that those two statements are true. Professor Jonathan Hassell has spent much of his last three years disproving them, both at the BBC and in other organisations, and coding how accessibility should be seen in the context of user-centred design into BS 8878. In this presentation from Camp Digital Manchester 2012 he shows how BS 8878 provides a framework for helping UX professionals embed accessibility considerations into their work, how it can empower and free them from onerous constraints, how it can challenge them to be more creative, and how the results can benefit all users, not just those with disabilities.

1. How BS 8878 brings together
usability & accessibility
Prof Jonathan Hassell (@jonhassell)
Director, Hassell Inclusion ltd.
Chair, BSI IST/45
Camp Digital Manchester
29th March 2012
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2. Thinking of Accessibility as Compliance with Standards…
… gets rid of some of your legal and reputational risks
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3. But it’s not the key to your success…
And, without thinking of the people you’re trying to help,
it’s not exactly exciting…
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4. And for a lot of people it feels like this…
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5. Listening to your diverse audiences’ needs…
identifies challenges…
but innovation often follows a challenge
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6. What accessibility really should be…
• all about disabled people
• aim shouldn‟t be accessibility… or even usability…
but a great user experience for disabled and elderly people
• whether they can get the right value out of what you create
• exactly what you aim for, for every other audience
• you don‟t want to exclude 10m+ people from using your products…
• so why don’t more organisations do it?
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7. How does BS8878 help?
– presents the business-case for accessibility and digital inclusion
– gives advice for how to embed accessibility strategically within an organisation
– shows a process which identifies the key decisions
which are taken in a web product’s lifecycle which impact accessibility
– recommends an informed way of making these decisions…
– and a way of documenting all of this to ensure best practice
Organizational Web Web
Web Product Product
Accessibility Accessibility Accessibility
Policy Policy Statement
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8. The accessibility of your web products
is in all these people’s hands…
Snr Mgrs
Finance Legal Marketing Strategy
Project Mgrs Product Mgrs
Developers Designers Writers Research & Testers
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9. Embedding motivation
• Need to motivate each
group…
• Or just use a business Snr Mgrs
case for the top level and
set policy top to bottom…
– check out OneVoice business
cases…
Finance Legal Marketing Strategy
Project Mgrs Product Mgrs
Developers Designers Writers Research & Testers
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10. Embedding responsibility
• Work out whose
responsibility accessibility
should ultimately be… Snr Mgrs
• Make sure they delegate
(and monitor results) well
• Make sure those delegated
to are trained in their Finance Legal Marketing Strategy
responsibilities
Project Mgrs Product Mgrs
Developers Designers Writers Research & Testers
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11. Embedding through
strategic policies
Snr Mgrs
Finance Legal Marketing Strategy
• create an Organizational Web Accessibility Policy to strategically embed accessibility
into the organization’s business as usual
• including where accessibility is embeddedMgrs
Project in: Product Mgrs
• web procurement policy
• web technology policy
• marketing guidelines
• web production standards
Developers Designers
(e.g. compliance with WCAG, browser support, AT support) Writers Testers
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12. Harmonising accessibility
with user-centred/inclusive design processes
• relating web accessibility to wider human- • and bringing in concepts of
centred and inclusive design practices user-personalised
approaches…
From:
ISO/FDIS 9241-210
Human-centred design for
interactive systems
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13. 1st stage: 1. Purpose
Yes,
The right 2. Target audiences
research
& thought 3. Audience needs
before you
there are
4. Preferences & restrictions
start
5. Relationship
6. User goals
16 2nd stage:
Making
strategic
choices
based on
that
research
7. Degree of UX
8. Inclusive cf. personalised
9. Delivery platforms
10. Target browsers, OSes, ATs
11. Create/procure, in-house/contract
steps
12. Web technologies
3rd stage: 13. Web guidelines
Production,
(sorry…)
14. Assuring accessibility
launch,
update 15. Launch information
cycle
16. Post-launch plans
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14. 1st stage: 1. Purpose
But The right
research
2. Target audiences
(if you’re doing & thought
before you
3. Audience needs
UCD) you’re
4. Preferences & restrictions
start
5. Relationship
doing most of
6. User goals
them already 2nd stage:
Making
7. Degree of UX
8. Inclusive cf. personalised
strategic
choices 9. Delivery platforms
– just tweaks
based on 10. Target browsers, OSes, ATs
that
research 11. Create/procure, in-house/contract
needed to 12. Web technologies
integrate 3rd stage: 13. Web guidelines
Production,
accessibility launch,
update
14. Assuring accessibility
15. Launch information
thinking cycle
16. Post-launch plans
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15. An informed way of making good decisions
• every decision taken could affect
whether the product will include or
exclude disabled and elderly people
• so every decision should be:
– recognised as a decision
– have all options and implications
considered
– made based on justifiable reasoning
– noted in the Web Product’s
Accessibility Policy for transparency
• at every step of the process
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16. A quick tour of some highlights from BS 8878’s process
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17. 1st stage: 1. Purpose
The right 2. Target audiences
research
& thought 3. Audience needs
before you 4. Preferences & restrictions
start
5. Relationship
6. User goals
BS8878 Product process
- 1st stage: doing the right research & thought before you start…
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18. 2. Define its target audiences
• can you predict/control who • is it designed for a particular • or will be used by a range of
will use it? audience? audiences?
– e.g. an Intranet
– or an extranet
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19. 3. Analyse the needs of those audiences for the product
• what are their general needs from the user experience of any web product?
• do they have specific needs from the product you are creating?
– how are you going to research these needs?
• general desk research into • your own research – surveys, ethnographic research
„disabled people‟s use of the web‟ into the context, preferences and specific product
needs of your audiences
– like you might do for non-disabled audiences…
– resulting in personas etc.
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20. 4. Note any platform or technology preferences & restrictions
– for example:
• lack of ability to download & install plug-ins or browser updates
• IT policy restrictions preventing use of browser preferences,
or installation of assistive technologies
• strong platform preferences (due to worries of cost/complexity/security)
– will impact on technology choice, platform choice,
reliance on ATs to mediate website experiences
• cf. rich-media technologies like Flash
and ‘alternative versions’
• accessibility isn’t about luddite-ism;
it is about understanding what your audience
really need…
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21. 2nd stage: 7. Degree of UX
Making
8. Inclusive cf. personalised
strategic
choices 9. Delivery platforms
based on 10. Target browsers, OSes, ATs
that
research 11. Create/procure, in-house/contract
12. Web technologies
BS8878 Product process
- 2nd stage: making strategic choices based on that research
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22. 7. Consider the degree of user-experience
the product will aim to provide
– degrees:
• technically accessible
• usable
• satisfying/enjoyable
– an example for online Pacman:
• Technically accessible
= can control Pacman using a switch
• Usable
= have a chance of winning as the ghosts
adapt to the speed of interaction of my switch
• Satisfying
= have the right level of challenge (not too easy or too hard)
– define the aim for each combination of user group and user goal
– BS8878 doesn‟t tell you what degree you should pick, just lets you know what the options are,
and asks you to choose a degreel you feel you can justify
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23. 8. Consider inclusive design and user-personalized approaches
– non-individualized/inclusive
• accessibility through guidelines, inclusive design, ATs, user-testing…
– user-personalized allows…
• users to specify their needs and then…
– finds a suitable product from a number of alternative versions, or
– adapts the web product to those needs
• often through „additional accessibility measures‟
– circumstances where a personalised approach could be useful:
• where a „one size fits all‟ approach doesn‟t work for all your target audiences
• if individual relationship with audience is possible/expected (e.g. eLearning)
then a personalised approach might be expected
• for audiences with restrictions on browser, installation etc.
– user-personalized should always complement,
never replace, inclusive design approaches
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24. 9. Consider the delivery platforms you will support
(and their accessibility implications)
– which platforms are you going to support,
and what degree of accessibility will you aim to achieve?
– useful research to have:
– are you in control of which platforms your users
will use your product on?
– no, if it‟s available publicly via a browser
– yes, if it‟s an intranet or only available as an app
– are your users likely to have a preference
on the platforms on which to use your product?
– options for degree of accessibility to aim for across different platforms?
1. one accessible product for desktop, hope standards will make it work on other platforms
2. as (1) but with responsive design UI and accessibility testing on other platforms
3. versions optimised for each platform, including appropriate UI and functionality subset,
fully tested
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25. 3rd stage: 13. Web guidelines
Production,
14. Assuring accessibility
launch,
update 15. Launch information
cycle
16. Post-launch plans
BS8878 Product process
- 3rd stage: production, launch and maintenance (lifecycle)
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26. 14. Assure the product’s accessibility through production
• creating an accessibility test plan Quality of data
• which testing methods will be used…
• at which points of the production process…
User testing
Remote testing
• strong recommendation to integrate user- User reviews / interviews
testing for accessibility with general usability Heuristics
Expert walkthrough
Testing with assistive technologies
testing Cost
Automated testing
• sticking to the plan during production
• finding out whether you are achieving your
target degree of UX
• and when the ideal isn‟t possible…
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27. 15. Communicate accessibility decisions at launch
• working out which compromises you can launch with…
and which you can‟t…
– achieving the minimal viable product and managing accessibility risk
• communicating all those decisions & compromises to your audiences…
– in an easily found accessibility statement on your website
– which your audiences can understand… Confusing help text: A number of sites accessed by
participants provided help pages which were so
technical that they were practically useless. Mention
of plugins and cookies resulted in complete
confusion by the users and apprehension about
whether they were able to follow the instructions
given.
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28. “BS 8878 is an integral part
of our web accessibility
strategy.
It has given us the
framework to help reduce
costs and improve the
quality when delivering
accessible web products for
our customers.”
Rob Wemyss
Head of Accessibility
Royal Mail Group

29. Summary: in a team/organisation that follows BS 8878
• you‟ll be expected to take accessibility seriously by product managers
• you‟ll be in a team where each member knows what accessibility expects from them
• they‟ll ask you to follow a user-centred design process (like I guess you want anyway)
• they‟ll ask you for/give you real-world user-research to help good decision making
• you‟ll be empowered to make decisions re accessibility, as long as you can justify them,
and write them down
• you‟ll have the freedom to create product variations where users‟ needs diverge
• you‟ll have a place to find best practice help for accessible design beyond the web
• you‟ll be asked to test products for accessibility, alongside usability, to the level the
budget will allow (and they‟ll be aware of the limited benefits of cheap options)
• you‟ll be freed from the impossibility of doing everything you could possibly do for v1.0,
as long as you tell your audience why and when they‟ll get what they need
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30. If you need support & training – I’m happy to help...
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31. Training & Innovation
support for
BS8878
Standards
Strategy &
research
www.hassellinclusion.com
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32. Get slides on all 16 BS 8878 steps
www.hassellinclusion.com/bs8878/
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33. Get latest news, tools, blogs, training:
www.hassellinclusion.com/bs8878/
Join the community & discussion:
www.meetup.com/bs8878-web-accessibility/
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34. e: jonathan@hassellinclusion.com
t: @jonhassell
w: www.hassellinclusion.com
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